How AI could disrupt retail media’s $38 billion search ad market

March 09, 2026 Presented by If OpenAI's latest moves indicate anything, LLMs are positioning themselves to be the go-to stop for searching and shopping. Between shopping integrations and ad product rollouts, AI chatbots could rattle retail media networks' hold on sponsored and search ad dollars. As user behavior shifts, so too could retail media's value proposition. Advertisement TOP STORY Generative AI How AI could disrupt retail media's $38 billion search ad market ChatGPT and other AI chatbots could divert shoppers from retailer sites, putting the $38B retail search market at risk. OTHER THINGS TO KNOW By adopting a more optimized flighting approach to ad spend, marketers can deliver more marginal ROI on their investments. This strategy ensures that they're not wasting any of their spending. Partner insights from Keen Decision Systems. Sponsored Wifi is an effective way to reach consumers before a large event and enable retargeting. By presenting an ad and redirecting users to an advertiser's site, retargeting can occur post-event to keep up momentum. Partner insights from Viasat Ads. Weather impacts what people try, buy and how they feel. This powers targeting to predict the moments when weather shifts a consumer's mindset toward purchase, driving sales and long-term growth. Learn more in this video. Partner insights from The Weather Company. A MESSAGE FROM DISNEY CAMPAIGN MANAGER Solve your ad buy You shouldn't have to piece together clues to understand campaign performance. Disney Campaign Manager puts you in the driver's seat with one simple ad solution across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN streaming platforms. Take control with live dashboards that show exactly what's happening, as it happens. See what ran. See what worked. See where performance actually came from. No mystery math. No detective work. Just clear answers to take into your next client meeting. Case closed. Get Started Today MEDIA & PLATFORMS Marketing on Platforms In graphic detail: How Anthropic's Pentagon refusal is paying off in downloads, brand trust and enterprise deals OpenAI’s Pentagon deal seemed to spark uproar among its users, many of whom were against it. Anthropic’s refusal to agree to the terms was seen by users as the more trustworthy alternative. Generative AI Media Buying Briefing: Overheard at DMBS Spring 2026: AI from the top to the bottom of agencies The Town Halls revealed the most about the challenges and solutions media agencies face with integrating AI systems and processes into workflows PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM APPSFLYER How AI uncovers weaknesses in measurement AI exposes where measurement breaks down, where assumptions hide and where decision-making confidence outpaces accurate outputs. It forces marketing organizations to confront a hard reality: Automation magnifies whatever uncertainty already exists. Advertisement Marketing on Platforms Meta's measurement and attribution updates are welcomed, but not ground-breaking, ad execs say Meta is rolling out the updates starting this month, in a bid to bring it more in line with third-party platforms. While advertisers always welcome more transparency, the changes alone won't necessarily lead to major budget increases. MARKETING The Creator Economy Long-form creators eye taking over TVs – and chasing bigger brand budgets Long-form episodic creator content is drawing in large numbers of highly engaged viewers, but ad budges are lagging behind. We explore why. PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM SEEDTAG Neuro-contextual AI matches creative to cognition Consumers have always responded to advertising that felt timely, relevant and emotionally aligned. Neuro-contextual AI allows advertisers to analyze the "why" and the "how" — the motivations and emotions that shape real engagement. Generative AI 'Brand safety is moving from fear to curiosity': Zefr's Raddon on content-level accreditation – and what it exposes about the industry The threat is no longer a discrete piece of bad content that a keyword list or a domain block can catch. Its volume. PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM CINT How cross-platform measurement enables real-time campaign optimization An effective cross-platform measurement strategy helps marketers improve performance in real time — optimizing creative, frequency or even publishers during a campaign. ICYMI Generative AI Agencies grapple with economics of a new marketing currency: the AI token Token costs pose questions for under-pressure agency pricing models. Are they a line item, a cost center — or an opportunity? Written by Jim Cooper and Sara Jerde Were you forwarded this email? Sign up to get it daily. Advertise | Digiday+ | Events | Awards Update your email | Unsubscribe | Privacy policy